Hairs dos (and don'ts) in Coronavirus crisis

“Put the scissors down and step away from the mirror, that’d be my best and only advice,” is the stern warning from one local hairdresser to anyone harbouring hair-brained ambitions to crop their own mop.
Karen Conroy, who runs Vibe Hair Studio on the Ballinagh Road in Cavan Town, has been hairdressing for the best part of 16 years. She’d prefer her clients bite the bullet and grow a mullet rather than wind up with a bandy set of bangs.
“I’ve seen some disasters,” admits Karen, who opened her salon, beside Kiernan’s Filling Station, in October 2017.
Karen recently featured in a ‘Life in Lockdown’ RTE documentary aired last week, focusing on how different people, families and indeed industries have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She understands why people’s patience might be running thinner than their hairline. But with the Government announcing last week that hairdressers and barbers can reopen until July 20, she’s urging people to wait it out.
“Don’t do it! Don’t cut your own hair. That’s the advice I’m giving my own clients who’ve been in touch. But the other main tip is don’t panic,” says Karen, who had to furlough six staff when the restrictions on non-essential business came into place in mid-March last.
Otherwise, in the case of covering up greys, she suggests some temporary options including shampoos and toners without resorting to shop-bought hair dye.
“For blondes it’s different, and my advice there is to change you parting. Another thing is to zig-zag a parting, giving your hair a lift, and making the roots a lot less obvious. There are lots of options. It’s much easier to fix small changes than dealing with something drastic.”
Karen adds, however, for those insisting on dying their own hair to go one tone lighter than initially thought. “Buy two, one to a patch test a few days in advance, and paint on the root only where you can see. The bare essentials, only to get you through, because we will be back, and we will get through this. If there is any consolation, it’s that we’re all in the same boat together on this,” laughs Karen.

Hair we go!
Alan Donnelly is a fourth generation barber with a shop - D Barbers - located in Longford Town. His dad Lloyd, a third generation barber, has a shop in Cavan Town beside Tesco.
He agrees with Karen’s assessment when it comes to cutting your own hair- “don’t do it”.
Despite this, and having been inundated with calls from friends about what to do with their unmanageable manes, Alan posted a helpful ‘how to’ video on YouTube titled: ‘the correct way to cut men’s hair (quarantine edition) // sides only with tips for fade’.

“I felt like I was repeating myself the whole time with all the calls, so I just did a short instructional for anyone looking to cut hair at home. Some people replied to say they’d found it very useful, while for a few others it was already too late and they’d gone and made haims of their dad’s or brother’s hair already. Obviously my first advice remains- don’t do it!”
The main problem for most men is hair coming down over the ears, and in a ‘must fix’ scenario, Alan suggests cutting [carefully] that section of the hair and leaving the rest on top to grow.
“You can see it on social media already people have gone to complete extremes because they’ve messed a self-style up and just shaved it all off. The consolation is that hair grows back, that’s the good news at least. But I’m nearly afraid to see what’ll be waiting in when all his has blown over, with patches missing and short spots. We’ll have our work cut out, I know that.”